The present disclosure relates to a system for sending and printing images. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a system for printer-to-printer remote printing of images.
The advent of digital cameras has greatly expanded the options for taking and distributing photographs. As is known in the art, digital cameras are used to take digital images that are, at least temporarily, stored within the camera. Normally, storage is provided with one or more internal memory cards that typically are removable from the camera.
After image data has been stored in camera memory, it can be downloaded to a computing device such as a personal computer (PC). Normally, each image is stored as a separate image file both within the camera and in the computing device once downloaded. When the image files are opened, they normally can be viewed (e.g., on a display device), processed in some manner (e.g., scaled), printed, and/or transmitted to a desired recipient.
With the ever increasing popularity of the Internet, people more and more frequently are sharing digital images electronically. For instance, digital images can be sent as attachments to e-mail messages. Although providing an effective means for sharing images, e-mailing images presents drawbacks. In particular, a relatively large amount of user interface is needed to send and receive images via e-mail. For example, the user normally must enter the e-mail program, call up the desired image or images, select the intended recipient for the image(s), and send them. Once the image or images have been sent to the recipient, the recipient normally must open the e-mail message, save the image file attachment on the recipient""s hard drive, and then open it in an appropriate browser program. Moreover, if the recipient wishes to have a hardcopy of the image, he or she typically must manually instruct the program to print the image(s). This process can be time consuming, particularly where the image files are large.
It would be desirable to have a system for sending and printing images which is highly automated so as to reduce the amount of user intervention required.
The present disclosure relates to a method for sending digital images to a recipient using a sender printer. The method comprises receiving a digital camera memory card with the printer and sending an image stored within the memory card to the recipient across a network such that a hard copy of the sent image is automatically printed by a recipient device. In a preferred embodiment, the sender printer is Internet-enabled and the image is sent directly from the sender printer to the recipient device. By way of example, the recipient device can also comprise an Internet-enabled printer. In such an embodiment, printer-to-printer sending is possible.
The features and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.